Hi guys,
I am a first year analyst/controller in European PERE fund. I got the full-time offer after completing a 6 month internship in acquisitions but I am now working in asset management/project dev. Most of my coworkers are much older than me and I would estimate that the average employee is around 40 yo and therefore pretty senior (most of them has kids etc).
Although I am very thankful that I have been given the opportunity, I have started to realize the flaws of working at a firm with mostly senior employees. I have hardly any "close friends" at work since noone is in my age so we have nothing besides work in common. In addition to this, I do not believe my boss is demanding enough since I never work more than 35-40 hrs a week but I still get the work done and my boss is very content with it.
So I guess you guys wonder "wtf is this guy talking about, he´s in his first year and he doesn´t even have to work overtime to get his shit done, he should just be happy"? The thing is, I am very happy that I have been given this "shortcut"-opportunity (I know most people in general work for a couple of years before approaching a career in PERE), but it just seems more fun and challenging to work with other junior employees at an advisory firm (where they generally recruit several graduates each year).
- How would you guys tackle this situation? I know that the job is a very good for the resume and the compensation will be very good if I stay for long, but I think that it would be more fun and challenging to work in a more junior team. Should I stay for a year and then evaluate other opportunities or should I look for other opportunities right away? In a month I will have worked at the firm for a year with the internship included.
Thanks,
Thanks for your answer** prospie**, but could you please clarify what is concerning about being a controller? My job title is analyst but since I work in asset management and project development I´d like to call it controlling to some extent.
The firm has around 50 employees and is very flexible so switching from i.e. Asset management to Finance or Acquisitions is not a big deal if one wishes to do so.
What do you mean people here are talking about when they mention REPE (PERE)?
Controller is generally (always?) an accounting position in the US - usually a manager of accounting department. Maybe different in Europe?
He means you make it sound like you're an accountant. Making sure bills are paid. Most on here are speaking of asset management, acquisitions, or investment sales brokers.
If you're bored and it is as easy as you say, go to acquisitions?
Aha then I understand what you mean, then it is different in Europe, we have controllers in finance that work with accounting and then we have fund controllers in Asset Management that work with portfolio management, sales of assets etc. However my role is not purely fund controlling because I work a lot with project dev which includes investment analysis of different scenarios and preparing material for raising financing etc.
But my question is rather if you would consider switching firm or going into e.g. capital markets to work with more junior employees since I have no ”friends” at work because i believe everyone is much older and hence we have nothing in common besides real estate?
Not sure if ULI has international chapters, or what the equivalent organization in Europe is, but look for outside networking organizations to join where there'll be a mix of people.
Yeah, maybe it aint that much of a problem after all although its nice to have colleagues with similar interests...
No. The answer to your question is no. You do not leave a PERE firm where you are one of/the only analyst among a group of senior professionals that have their shit together to go work on a younger team that is just scraping by deal-by-deal. You sit down, shut the fuck up, and learn as much as you can from whoever is willing to teach you for as long as possible.
Haha, alright then, I guess the experience is better than fun colleagues in the long run...
Don't get me wrong, I believe that the team that you work on/with is very important (I've moved jobs because of bad leadership or team synchronization issues in the past), but it doesn't sound like you dislike people or the team is horrible to you, but that you are just bored. Being bored as an analyst with less than a year of experience means that you are in for a really rough 40 years of work.
Sounds like you just feel like you are missing out on the "grind" experience that leads to camraderie. Pretty much everyone who goes through those experiences does so to end up exactly where you are, on track to make good money in a relatively low stress environment.
I guess so, but it seems like the grinding also leads to a lot of good and fun stuff like dinners, afterworks and networking with people the same age (for example i know thats common at most advisory firms like CW, CBRE and so on). Maybe I will grow into the role and get to know more people in the industry later on...
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